Tag: Vijay Mallya

Sepang, 29 March 2014: It was a wet Saturday afternoon in Sepang this year and Sahara Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg qualified in seventh place repeating his Australian performance while teammate Sergio Perez will start P14.

The Qualifying sessions were delayed for over 45 minutes and all the drivers had to manage in conditions that left visibility very poor with water and spray making driving tricky with the new engines.

German Hulkenberg, rejoined the Indian outfit, after a year’s sojourn with Sauber team. Sauber, with its team principal in Indian-born Monisha Kaltenborn, are close competitors for Sahara Force India, which pushed them to 7^th place last year to regain its sixth place. The change of tyre compounds midway through the last season after the Webber tyre flew and hit a cameraman, had ruined the chances of the Indian team, which would otherwise may have achieved much better results. Many also feel, the Pirelli’s safety-first strategy was one of the crucial reasons for Red Bull winning their fourth title. Vettel, who struggled in the initial races, became a dominating force in the later half of the season.

This year, Force India, vows to do better than last year. “I made a public statement that we would improve year and we have been doing that. We reclaimed our 6^th place and dry or wet, I want both our cars to finish in top ten,’’ said Vijay Mallya, Team Principal.

Hulkenberg clocked 2:01.712 for P-7 on Saturday. “It was pretty challenging with the weather conditions today. There was so much rain, standing water and spray. Visibility was an issue and it was hard to see your braking points. It’s tricky to drive these engines with lots of torque in these conditions and you need to be really smooth with the throttle out of the slow corners, but I enjoyed the challenge. We’re in P7 and in the top ten on the grid for the second time in a row, which is a result we can be satisfied with. I think we have shown all weekend that we have the speed to be top-ten material whether it’s wet or dry and I hope to score a good helping of points tomorrow,” commented Hulkenberg.

Meanwhile, Sergio Perez, popularly called Checko could not make it to the final qualifying session after clocking 2:02.511 in Q2. “The conditions out there were very difficult and they kept changing with every lap, especially during Q2. I had a better feeling on the intermediate tyres and when I changed to the full wets I struggled to keep the temperature in them, which made it hard to put together a good lap. Tomorrow we will need to try and recover from P14, but we have to see what the weather will do. I also need to solve the rear locking which is affecting me under braking in the wet conditions. I’m still confident we can have a good race and I will keep fighting to score as many points as possible,” he said.

Team’s Managing Director Vijay Mallya added: “Another very wet qualifying session in Sepang presented us with challenging conditions today. Nico looked comfortable in the wet and matched his starting position from Melbourne with seventh place. He has been in the top ten in all the sessions this weekend and should be in good shape for tomorrow. Sergio struggled more in the wet and didn’t have confidence on the wet tyres. We will try and solve those issues tonight because there’s a good chance of more rain tomorrow.’’

Talking to India in F1, he commented as a parting shot: “Whether it’s wet or dry I’d like to see both Sahara Force India cars well inside the top ten.”

However, Nico was realistic when he spoke of the problems a day earlier: “I think we can be satisfied with what we learned on Friday. We worked through the programme and there were no big issues on my side. Of course, the hot weather here means conditions are tough and we found that tyre management during the long run was quite challenging.

“It’s even more difficult this year because there is more wheelspin with these engines and the rear degradation is quite high. We collected the usual data for the tyres and the set-up, and I think there is still room for improvement. I need some more grip and we need to tweak the balance before final practice,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Chief Operating Officer Otmar Szafnauer, sounded optimistic: “Apart from some lost track time for Sergio on Friday, which resulted from a fuel system issue, our preparation for the Malaysian Grand Prix has gone largely to plan. We are happy with P-7 and will try to finish both cars in points for the Sunday.

“We met our mileage target for the tyres and signed off the cooling solutions we have in place for this weekend. The long run performance looks competitive, although coping with the high tyre degradation will be critical on Sunday afternoon,” he added. But rain may bring along its own problems.

The mood in the Indian camp, both inside the garage and the among the team personnel, looks very bright. A good Sunday at Sepang is in the offing for the Force!

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Melbourne, 12 March 2014: Formula One season begins this week, with Melbourne hosting the Australian Grand Prix, the first round of the 19-round 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship. Defending champions Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing team powered by Renault engines may have faced a lot of problems during the pre-season testing but one cannot rule out neither the German, a four-time world champion or the Red Bull team. However, it looks that the new rules and the new engine will bring forth a new season of hope and competition for many of the teams. After a few races, the 2013 season was dominated by the Red Bull team and Vettel in particular, especially after the lose-tyre incident which forced Pirelli, the tyre suppliers to change the compounds. In the process, the Indian outfit, Sahara Force India too suffered.

This year despite the financial troubles and court cases affecting the owners of both Sahara and UB Group, Subrata Roy and Vijay Mallya, respectively, it is expected that it would not affect the finances of the team.  The team did well in the tests and had logged quite a number of laps that helped the engineers to set-up different permutations and combinations. Sahara Force India is looking forward to a good season with both Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg in good nick.

The temporary track around the Albert Park lake provides a stern challenge for drivers and cars alike. As is traditional with street circuits, the surface lacks the grip of a permanent racing facility. This leads to high track evolution as the circuit ‘rubbers-in’ over the weekend making set-up a moving target. The circuit also has various bumps and undulations that have been known to catch drivers out, particularly coming into braking zones, with gravel traps and unyielding walls waiting for the unwary or the unlucky.

The 2014 edition of the Australian Grand Prix has another factor to consider.  All eyes will be on the performance of F1’s new turbocharged power units. Winter testing suggested the 2014 cars had all the performance of their predecessors but with the hybrid technology still in its infancy, glitches abounded during the three scheduled testing sessions. While teams were able to complete race simulations with increasing confidence towards the end of the testing season, a race of attrition is to be expected in Melbourne.

Additionally, teams are still on the learning curve with their new equipment. The new cars will complete the race distance on two-thirds the fuel used by their predecessors – but maximising the potential of that load entails a new paradigm in race craft and is very much a work in progress.

Teams have acknowledged this first grand prix of the season will be a voyage into the unknown, with many discovering for the first time the capabilities of their race-specification cars during the practice sessions. It promises to be a surprising and exhilarating weekend.

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